The Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program is a National Science Foundation funding mechanism, administered by NSF’s Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate, that awards money directly to institutions of higher education to build the organizational capacity needed to move fundamental research into practical use — not to fund a single investigator’s research project. NSF launched the program in February 2023 under solicitation NSF 23-558; the current, active solicitation is NSF 25-548. On December 14, 2023, NSF announced its first cohort: more than $100 million distributed across 18 academic institution teams, each eligible for up to $6 million over four years.
For a research administrator or technology transfer professional evaluating whether ART is relevant to their institution, the key distinction to hold onto is this: ART does not fund a researcher’s lab work, and it is not a small-business commercialization program like SBIR. It funds the infrastructure around research — technology transfer office staff and expertise, invention-to-market pipelines, entrepreneurship training, and regional innovation partnerships — at the institutional level.
What ART Funds: The Five Program Tracks
Per the current NSF 25-548 solicitation, ART is structured around five distinct tracks, each aimed at a different level of institutional research-translation maturity and a different role in the broader ecosystem:
| Track | Purpose | Typical award |
|---|---|---|
| Track 1 — ACT (Accelerating Technology Transfer) | Institutions with low-to-medium research-translation capacity build core IP-protection infrastructure and an initial invention pipeline. | Up to $3M over 3 years, with a possible $1M/2-year renewal; up to ~20 awards planned |
| Track 2 — GROW (Growing Capacity for Research Translation) | High-research-volume institutions with still-modest translation infrastructure scale up, paired with a higher-capacity mentoring institution; up to half the budget can fund seed translational-research projects. | Up to $6M over 4 years; up to ~10 awards planned |
| Track 3 — RESOURCE (Technology Transfer Resource Centers) | A high-capacity institution or nonprofit operates a regional hub delivering tech-transfer services, training, and resources to multiple lower-capacity partner institutions (at least half the annual budget must go directly to those regional partners). | Up to $8M over 4 years, with a possible $2M/4-year renewal; up to ~5 awards planned |
| Track 4 — ET (Education and Training) | Develops entrepreneurship and technology-transfer curricula and training materials for use across lower-capacity institutions nationally. | Up to $3M over 3 years, with a possible $2M/2-year renewal; up to ~4 awards planned |
| Track 5 — CART (Coordination for Accelerating Research Translation) | A single national coordinating hub connecting all other ART awardees, building a community of practice and a shared monitoring/evaluation platform. | Up to $3M over 5 years, with a possible $3M/5-year renewal; up to ~2 awards planned |
These figures reflect the NSF 25-548 solicitation and are the kind of detail NSF revises between funding cycles — always confirm current award ceilings, track counts, and deadlines directly against the live NSF ART program page before an institution commits proposal-development resources.
Research Translation Readiness Level (RTRL)
ART uses a concept it calls Research Translation Readiness Level (RTRL) to sort applicant institutions by how developed their existing translation infrastructure already is — research expenditure volume, patenting and licensing activity, startup formation track record, whether a technology transfer office exists at all, and how much entrepreneurship-education infrastructure is already in place. RTRL determines which track an institution is eligible to apply to: Tracks 1 and 2 are for lower- and medium-RTRL institutions building capacity, while Tracks 3, 4, and 5 are led by higher-RTRL institutions or nonprofits that already have mature infrastructure and are funded specifically to extend it outward to lower-RTRL partners.
Who Can Apply: Institutional Eligibility, Not an Individual PI Award
This is the point most likely to trip up someone used to reading NSF solicitations through the lens of an individual investigator award. ART eligibility runs through the institution, not a single PI’s research agenda:
- Eligible applicant organizations: U.S. accredited institutions of higher education (both two-year and four-year, including community colleges), plus nonprofit non-academic organizations directly associated with educational or research activities.
- PI requirements: the PI must hold an appointment at the eligible organization; foreign researchers may participate as collaborators but cannot receive NSF funds directly; NSF strongly encourages technology transfer office representation as PI or co-PI, since the award is meant to build that office’s capacity.
- Proposal limits: one proposal per institution per track, and an institution cannot submit to both Tracks 1/2 and Tracks 3/4/5 in the same cycle (a Track 2 mentoring institution may submit separately to Tracks 3, 4, or 5).
In practice this means an ART proposal is an institutional undertaking led by the office of research or the technology transfer office (see CASRAI’s technology transfer process guide for how a TTO’s core workflow operates), not something an individual faculty PI assembles independently the way they would a standard research proposal.
How ART Differs From SBIR/STTR and Other NSF Translational Funding
ART sits in NSF’s broader translational-research portfolio alongside several other mechanisms that research administrators are more likely to already know, and it is worth being precise about how it differs from each:
- Vs. SBIR/STTR: SBIR and STTR fund small businesses (with STTR requiring a university research-institution partner) to de-risk and commercialize a specific technology through Phase I/II/III awards. ART funds the university itself, not a business, and funds institutional infrastructure rather than a specific product’s development. An institution can be active in both simultaneously — ART capacity-building is, if anything, meant to help produce more SBIR/STTR-ready spinouts and licenses downstream. See CASRAI’s guide to funding options for a university spinout for how these mechanisms fit together in practice.
- Vs. NSF I-Corps: NSF I-Corps trains individual researcher teams in customer-discovery methodology to test commercial viability of a specific technology. ART operates one level up — it funds the institutional program and staff infrastructure an I-Corps site or node needs to exist and scale, not a single team’s training.
- Vs. a standard NSF research grant: a typical NSF research award funds a PI’s investigation into a specific scientific question. ART funds organizational capacity — people, processes, and pipelines — with the expectation that capacity produces more, and more successful, downstream research-translation outcomes across the institution, not a single funded study.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ART the same thing as NSF SBIR/STTR?
No. SBIR/STTR fund small businesses to commercialize a specific technology; ART funds academic institutions to build the staff, infrastructure, and training programs that make research translation possible in the first place. See CASRAI’s SBIR dictionary entry and guide to SBIR/STTR reauthorization for how that program works.
Can an individual faculty member apply for an ART award?
No. The applicant of record is the institution (or an eligible nonprofit), and while a faculty member or technology transfer office staff member typically serves as PI or co-PI, the award funds institutional programs and infrastructure, not one investigator’s research project.
What does “Research Translation Readiness Level” measure?
RTRL is NSF’s way of sorting applicant institutions by how much existing tech-transfer infrastructure they already have — research expenditure volume, patents, licenses, startups formed, TTO staffing, and entrepreneurship-education programs — and it determines which of the five ART tracks an institution is positioned to apply to.
Which NSF directorate runs ART?
NSF’s Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate, which was itself established in 2022 specifically to house NSF’s use-inspired and translational research programs.
How much funding has ART awarded so far?
NSF announced its first cohort on December 14, 2023: more than $100 million across 18 academic institution teams. NSF has continued issuing subsequent ART solicitations (NSF 25-548 is the version current as of this writing) with new award rounds; check the NSF ART program page for the latest cohort figures.
